JohnSki updated everyone on the distribution of Mary Burke for Governor lawn signs as of last week’s meeting.

Janet announced that Bradley Whitford is going to be speaking at an event for Mary Burke and the democratic candidates at the Middleton office ( 6719 Frank Lloyd Wright Ave., Middleton) Friday, October 3rd. He played the character Josh Lyman in the West Wing. The event starts at 9:45 am, but the Middleton team wants people to arrive at 9:30 am.

We spent a lot of time at this meeting listening to Peg describe how she canvasses her neighborhood for progressive causes. She does not distribute literature, necessarily. She prefers to engage her neighbors in conversation about issues and subjects such as education, health care (Peg is a retired nurse), and local controversies like the proposed new gravel pit. She gets to know them on a conversational basis. She referred to a speech she had heard Michelle Obama make in Milwaukee, where Michelle noted that so many wards in Milwaukee could be turned around by just getting ten progressive voters out to vote. Peg is working on her ten in her Windsor neighborhood. She has been disconcerted to find out that many new residents do not get a welcome packet with information on where to register and where to vote. Peg refers to these conversations as “seed planting.” People are so polarized these days that a casual, conversational approach seems to work better than a lit drop, name drop approach. She told us a number of stories to exemplify her methods. So, Peg feels that if she can get ten votes for Mary Burke and our other progressive candidates, her efforts will have been worth it. Her information will be added to the “VAN” and other databases.

Karen brought up the subject of the candidate forum scheduled for October 8th from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. at the DeForest Library, hosted and run by the DeForest Area Chamber of commerce. Ginny said she emailed The Cap Times and the Wisconsin State Journal news services. Liz said the forum will probably be taped by Wisconsin Eye and made available in that format. All DAP members and associates are urged to attend and make sure you have your questions prepared to hand in. Several DAP members want to bring information to hand out or perhaps staff a DAP informational table.

There is another candidates’ forum scheduled for October 9th at 5:00 p.m. at Edgewood College Anderson Auditorium. All state office seekers (governor, attorney general, etc.) have been invited. The NAACP will moderate.

Also on October 9th, there will be a forum at Lake Mills elementary school at 7:00 p.m. Michele Zahn is going to try to make both the forum in Lake Mills and the one at Edgewood. Whew!

AND, there is a rally to celebrate the re-opening of the Democratic office in Columbus on October 5th from 2:00 to 4:00 p.m. on the corner of E. James and N. Water St. Candidates will speak at 2:30.

Janet said that anyone can use the Sun Prairie office of the candidates’ coordinated campaigns. It is on Main Street just east of the Kwik Trip in Sun Prairie. Janet urged DAP to make phone calls to all you can to recruit volunteers. There are 400 names in our DAP area alone who must be contacted and recontacted. We discussed, too, volunteers to provide rides to the polls on election day, getting voter ID’s for those who do not have them, early voting, and sign placement.

On the subject of the big, blue-and-white, hand painted “Mary Burke 4 Governor” signs, the ones we produced are being put up in SW Wisconsin, the Richland Center vicinity, and between here and Eau Claire. Other groups like ours met and did similar painting projects in Eau Claire, Shawano, Maple, Black River Falls, and maybe some other places we do not know about.

Karen informed us about the dangers of phosphorus laden manure originating from CAFO’s (large scale castle feeding operations). The manure digester at Waunakee keeps spilling. Other sources of phosphorus runoff that endanger our lakes include large subdivision deveopments such as the ones being proposed west of Fitchburg, also threatening wetlands. DeForest’s own Sanimax situation was brought up.

Liz asked, “What’s going on with WGN?” (Wisconsin Grassroots Network, where several DAP members are very active) Karen and others mentioned some of what is going on with WGN lately, including the monthly phone discussions among DAP-like groups all over Wisconsin’s 2nd Congressional District, known as the WGN CD2 Alliance.

Progressive Partners will be meeting November 8th in Oregon, hosted by the Oregon Area Progressives: 1:00 to 3:30 at the bank.